We’re very excited that the annual Doodle4Google (D4G) competition with the theme ‘A place in India I wish to visit’ has reached its final stages. The competition has seen amazing response from across the country and we are glad to announce our 12 Finalists.

Details of the finalists along with their doodles are showcased at:http://www.google.co.in/doodle4google/. Online voting to pick the final winner has been ongoing from October 27 and will close on November 10. Our final champion doodler will be announced on November 12 at an event in New Delhi.

As always, this year’s D4G participants are grouped into three categories: Group 1 comprising students from Class 1 to 3; Group 2 with students from Class 4 to 6; and Group 3 with students from Class 7 to 10. Breaking all previous records, this year, we received more than 1 Million entries! These went through a 2 rounds of judging, first by a group of Art Schools, and then by our national jury of Cartoonist Ajit Ninan, Art Director at Tinkle Savio Mascarenhas and Google Doodle Team Lead Ryan Germick.

You get to now vote for your choices online to choose one winner from each group. Finally, on the basis of your votes and on the basis of the ranking by the reputed national jury, the national winner will be selected from all the finalists. The winning doodle will be placed on thegoogle.co.in homepage on November 14, National Children’s Day.

Here is the list of the 12 finalists from across India:

Group 1: Class 1 to 3

1. Pranav V Chhatbar – The Rajkumar College, Rajkot

2. Manasvi N. Gaikwad – St. Xaviers High School, Mumbai

3. Sarvagjna Miriyala – DAV Public School, Mumbai

4. Shaurya Jadon – Model School, Faridabad

Group 2: Class 4 to 6

1. Amna Firdous – St. Anthony’s Day School, Kolkata

2. V Sai Latha Rani - Sri Prakash Vidya Niketan, Vizag

3. Isa Chowdhury – Model School, Durgapur

4. Reba Philip – Pallikoodam School, Kottayam

Group 3: Class 7 to 10

1. Joel Valentine – Army Public School, Bengaluru

2. Vaidehi Reddy – Army Public School, Pune

3. Samyak Singh – Sharda Vidya Mandir, Bhopal

4. Y Sai Greeshma – Sri Prakash Vidya Niketan, Vizag

About the History of the Doodle:

Over the years, doodles on the Google homepage have made search on Google more fun and enjoyable for its users worldwide. When doodles were first created, nobody had anticipated how popular and integral they would become to the Google search experience. Nowadays, many users excitedly anticipate the release of each new doodle and some even collect them!

Doodles are known as the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. Having a little bit of fun with the corporate logo by redesigning it from time to time is unheard of at many companies but at Google, it is a part of the brand. While the doodle is primarily a fun way for the company to recognize events and notable people, it also illustrates the creative and innovative personality of the company itself.